Our current world is a series of broken and fragmented ecosystems
where nature's legacy is severely threatened. Just how this threat
can be met and what strategies for landscape management to protect
biodiversity can be developed are some of the issues that will be
addressed March 1­2 during the Ecosystem Restoration Workshop at
the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE).

Ecosystem restoration is both an emerging science and art that
attempts to address the problems of degraded ecosystems and habitat
fragmentation.

"It is a testing ground for ecological theory as well as a process
for developing new patterns of human relationships with nature," says
Robert Grese, associate professor of landscape architecture. "By its
very nature, ecosystem restoration demands the involvement of a
variety of disciplines, among them ecologists, wildlife and wildland
managers, sociologists and psychologists, policy scientists,
landscape architects, geologists, hydrologists, and horticulturists."
In addition, many restoration efforts provide the public with
opportunities to become involved in the process.

The Ecosystem Restoration Workshop will bring together
representatives from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to
discuss what direction should be followed in developing strategies
for research, education and national policy for ecosystem
restoration. The public is invited to attend keynote addresses and a
presentation of case studies.

Reed Noss, a research scientist at the University of Idaho and
scientific director for the Wildlands Project will speak on "Status
and Trends of Ecosystems in the U.S.: The Context and Need for
Ecosystem Restoration" at 8:30 a.m. March 1 in Rackham Amphitheater.
At 10:15 a.m. in the same hall, Roger Anderson, professor of biology
at Illinois State University, will speak on "Research in Ecosystem
Restoration," and at 11:15 a.m. William Niering, professor of botany
and research director at Connecticut College's arboretum and editor
of the Journal of Ecological Restoration, will deliver "Teaching
Ecosystem Restoration." All three presentations are free and open to
the public.

Beginning at 1:45 p.m. in Room 1040, Dana Building, four case
studies will be presented including Michelle Grigore's "Toledo
MetroparksSavanna Restoration in the Oak Openings Metropark," John
Young's "Cooper River Project in South Carolina" and his "St. Clair
River Project in Michigan," Donald Tilton's "Detroit Airport Wetland
Mitigation Project," and Tom Crow's "Impacts of Silvicultural
Treatments on Biological Diversity in the Ottawa National Forest."
This presentation session also is free and open to the public.